I’m going on holiday and I’m really worried about catching a verruca, what can I do?

Worries about catching verrucae are perfectly understandable as some can be painful, unsightly and quite frankly just embarrassing.

So what can you do?

The evidence shows us that the infective particle of the verruca virus can only survive in wet areas, which is why swimming pools are the most common places to pick them up. You also need to have an abrasion somewhere on your skin when you come into contact with the virus in order for it to cause an infection. You may not notice anything for quite sometime after coming into contact with the virus as it can lie dormant for several months.

The best way to avoid catching a verruca is to wear waterproof footwear around swimming pools, flip flops and crocs are good for this purpose. For children who are in and out of the water, running around the side of the pool, swimming shoes the sort surfers wear, jelly shoes or verruca socks are a the answer.

Any communal wet area can be a source of infection, so if you are using showers at campsites or sports and leisure facilities where you don’t know who has used the shower before you wear flip flops or crocs, something that is slip proof that won’t be damaged by the water.

You may have a verruca yourself and be worried about passing it on to your loved ones, using any of the bathroom cleaners to clean the bath or shower after you have used it will kill all traces of the virus. If you are staying with someone and don’t want to worry them dry the area thoroughly, this will kill the virus as it needs a moist surface to live on. Keeping to your own towel and bath mat or just being the last one to bathe, ensuring everything has dried out before the next user comes along will also solve your problem. Alternatively just cover the verruca up with a waterproof plaster

Don’t worry yourself too much though about verrucae, they often disappear in a few short months without any treatment at all, this is especially true for children.

See our previous blog for more top tips about verrucae.